Sports, Body, Type

As is known in the US, body types and shapes are apparently a big deal.  In the US, we are told to basically conform to a specific “standard” body type, height, weight, etc. Though I’m not much of an athlete anymore, I use to play tennis competitively when I was younger.  I played for about twelve to fifteen hours a week, from about five years old till I was about seventeen or eighteen. I was never really skinny or even very visually muscular but I can say that I was fit and had muscle behind my weight -- at least fit enough to win competitively in tennis.  Growing up as a lifer in a Baptist private school, most of the people there were pretty much the same: either small with little or no meat on their bones, or tall and gangly with even less meat on their bones than the rest.  Since I have always been a bit beefier than my friends and fellow students, I was often asked to join the football team. Of course, I always said no because I was playing tennis. We tend to idolize and worship our favorite athletes, seeing them as the pinnacle of human health. However, it seems that football seems to be one of the only sports that requires the exact opposite body type that most of society would frown on, but because it is football we don’t seem to care as much. In an article by Men’s Health they gave a test to see if you are an ideal healthy man: http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/fitness-level-tests

In it they have a basic ranking of Weak, Ordinary, and Exceptional. If the ideal healthy person is supposed to be able to do all this: Running 1.5 miles in 10 minutes, Run 300 yards in one minute, Toss a basketball 75 feet while kneeling, etc. Then, I think that we should not be looking at athletes and making them the standard to US Health. We tend to idolize athletes and look at them as prime specimens of health, though some can never realistically claim that shape that the US covets so much. We seem to pine after what others think of us and try to conform because of social pressure and a need for attention. However, some are just born with the luck of having bigger bodies than others and instead of worrying about social image, maybe work on something that actually has substance, like one’s character. 

A Barbie Girl in a Changing World

This class has opened my eyes to many things I may not have noticed otherwise. While I had some awareness of how women were objectified or held to standards to which they couldn't adhere, I wasn't aware of just how much toy commercials impacted the intended audience. I decided to do some digging.

These are some of the Barbie commercials from that beautiful time period that was the 1990s. It is a bit lengthy, but I recommend watching at least the first few commercials. They go by fast. My personal favorite, simply because I find it funny, is "Teacher Barbie" at 5:47.

There you have it. Had your laugh? Good. Me too.

In those commercials, it's easy to get caught up in what Barbie can do, what you can make Barbie do, her constant romance with Ken, the fashion and the style, everything about the appearance of how glamorous Barbie can be in her different roles. You can tell that these are the kinds of things that girls will look for in themselves. "Barbie is glamorous with glitter in her hair, so I must have glitter in mine as well!" 

Piercy's "Barbie Doll" was published in 1971, twenty years before these commercials came out, and not much had changed. These commercials do almost nothing to promote the self-esteem of young girls in what they can do as individuals, only as what Barbie can do. They need the newest Barbie to fit in with society or do the things that Barbie can do. One commercial I recall was from the 1960s and it spoke of Barbie's new arms and legs that could actually move, just like a real person! Personally, that made it seem easier to play with the doll, but again, did nothing to promote girls' self-esteem.

Now granted, I grew up with Barbies, so I was in awe of some of the products that existed before I knew they did. I never remember wishing I was more like the dolls I played with, that my hair was as sleek as theirs, or my arms as toned. On one hand, I don't believe children actively think that they should look like their dolls. That may just happen subconsciously. On the other hand, I don't think there should be a reason for girls to feel less than acceptable in society. They need to know that from a young age, they belong, that they have a place.

That's why it heartened me to hear of the new Barbies Mattel made. Barbies now come in tall, petite, and curvy, including all body types. Now, Barbie has realistic legs, arms, and a more realistic shoulder to waist ratio. While it may be harder to shop for clothes for the newly shaped Barbies, it appeases those children who do feel less than acceptable because of their toys. It shows them that people, like their new dolls, come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. 

In recent years, Barbie has been making some pretty progressive changes. For one, the commercials have changed. Ruth Handler, the creator, said "...through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman had choices." This quote alone shows that the correct mindset was always present, that just the bodily proportions were a tad off. 

The other night I was watching a movie on television and the following commercial came on. It came out in 2015, but I had forgotten about it and it made me aware of the awareness I have now of the messages being sent to little girls. Watching the other older commercials had almost an "in-your-face" tone, what with the upbeat and bouncy music, bright colors, and typical 90s vibe. The new commercial has an uplifting attitude, shows that girls can do whatever they want to do and succeed, and promotes a positive self-image. Take a look for yourself, even if you've already seen it. 

This commercial brought me back to the days when I played with Barbies, when I acted out miniature kid-friendly soap operas, or got the kids ready for school, or even "homeschooled" the kids (because I had so much knowledge about that topic---Haha. NOT).  

It is a positive influence for younger girls. These girls are taking on the roles of college professor, men's soccer coach, paleontologist, veterinarian, and who knows what else. As of this year, Barbie even has a president and vice president doll, among many others. It is heartening to know that standards for little girls are changing, that they are now being pressured to stand up against the pressure against them. I mean, as soon as they become "women," society will place new standards on them. At least for now, maybe, just maybe, they'll escape the cynics and critics of the world and escape to their imaginations instead. With the bodily changes and the public appearance Barbie has changed, maybe, just maybe, these young girls will have enough positive influence in their lives, either from their toys or the changing world around them, to make positive changes for the generations to come. 

The Long and The Short of It

From a young age women are often told what society expects us to look like. They want us to be small among other things. On the other hand, men are ridiculed if they aren’t large enough.

This has been happening for centuries. It varies by culture, but many Western cultures view it the same way. For example, in the Victorian era many women wore corsets in order to appear small in stature. (It also restricted their movement.) Many women had bruised or broken ribs because they would tie it so tight. This obviously wasn’t something healthy, and it’s sad that women had to go to great lengths to feel “beautiful” according to society’s standards. That’s why eating disorders are very common in women and why Kyle Lukoff struggled in Taking Up Space. (He's an FTM who struggles with an eating disorder.)

As I mentioned earlier, the corset also restricted a woman’s movement. Today women will often wear pencil skirts and heels or tightly cinched dresses, making it much harder to move around. I think the reason why clothes tend to restrict a woman’s movement is because if she can’t move around as much she won’t be taking up so much space.

            Think about it. If you’re at a gathering and someone moves around the house a lot, you’re going to think that person is taking up a lot of space. You saw them over here earlier and now they’re over there. Even if that person only circulated a few spots, if they’re constantly moving it’s going to feel as if they’re taking up all of those spots. It’s similar to – if someone wants to look busy but doesn’t want to do actual work he/she can move around a lot and people will think that person has done a lot because they saw him/her in many places i.e. he/she took up a lot of space.

            This goes a step forward when it is applied to height. Women can’t be too tall and men can’t be too short. Very tall men are often praised for their height because that somehow makes them more “manly.” The view of weight/size is to be expected but height throws me a little over the edge. People can’t control their height; it’s genetics. Even though women aren’t supposed to be tall, they can’t be too short either. True, this may be because men are on average taller than women. However, it doesn't make much sense to ridicule people because of their genes. 

The woman is society sternly seeing if the girl is an appropriate height.

Society’s pressures are even worse on transgender people. How Lukoff acts – if he takes up more space or tries to be smaller – determines whether others perceive him as masculine or feminine. I can only imagine this being harder for someone transgender, which is enough of a struggle without the addition of an eating disorder.

            Of course, I wish society wasn’t this way. However, I don’t see a change happening anytime soon. Too many people are sucked into the pressures and can’t escape. People will always want a standard of beauty or masculinity – not all people, but a good portion of people. Despite this negativity we should fight these standards with the hope of a better future. 

            I mean, at least women don't have to wear corsets anymore.

"Am I Small Enough Yet?"

It is amazing how society conditions us in a way that we typically do not even realize that this is conditioned. Similar to how women are conditioned to be silent in the romance Silence, different genders are conditioned to fit into an allocated space of society. What really resonated with me when reading Taking up Space by Kyle Lukoff, was when he mentioned how society conditioned females to take up as little space as possible, hence the reason eating disorders are so prevalent in women. Now why would someone go through all that work and pain, just to take up as little space as possible? The answer: the amount of space a person takes up needs to be equivalent to the amount that person deserves.

I remember watching a YouTube video a couple of months ago, and it was this 19 year-old model telling people how she no longer gets any jobs because the modelling industry considered her too big, because her hips were ‘too wide’ and her butt ‘too big’. I found this disturbing because she notes that her body mass index is 17.5 which is underweight by any standard and the normal body mass index for her age and height is 19. She is considered too big overall, so even with diet and exercising, she may still be considered too big to continue her career. This is just one of many examples of how, if a female is not small enough, society will punish the individual to be smaller. In this case, the 19 year-old is punished to be smaller, because at her current size, she does not deserve a job in her industry.

The 19 year-old model who is obviously too big.

Society conditions us to be in certain categories and we must fit into specific boxes. If we do not literally and figuratively fit, then we must take actions to make ourselves fit through dieting and exercise. We are given unrealistic ideals to achieve to be smaller from the Barbie doll look to Disney’s princesses figures seen in media. This small unrealistic look even lead one woman who wanted to have a small waist like a Barbie so much that she wore corset waist-trainer where eventually, her ribs became so deformed that a person could grip her waist with one hand. Woman go through all these struggles just to get the approval of society, only to be told they are not good enough or small enough, like the 19 year old model mentioned before. We are told how to sit in a way to look more respectable, by crossing one leg over another, but this is just conditioning to make ourselves smaller, while men are encouraged to take up space, by splaying their legs apart. If women want to make space for themselves in society, like in business, then they must assume male characteristics, to 'deserve' that space. Until reading Taking up Space, I never realized that that even transsexuals are conditioned to be small, because society believes they should not exist, so they do not deserve any space. However, if society ‘allows’ these individuals to exist, then the individual needs to assimilate themselves to one gender or another to acquire their deserved space. When Kyle wants to bring up being transsexual in his support group, he is told not to because it basically does not 'exist' as an issue for why one would have an eating disorder. 

We constantly let these social expectations demean us as a person and lead to believe that all our value lies in how our bodies look to others, which is frankly ridiculous. Our worth in society should not be based off of our gender. Because honestly, why should men ‘deserve’ more space than others?